Wayne looks at the party. "But you never heard that part, did you? The warriors thought it an insult to their pride. They meant to conquer."
Abraham: "I've inferred it, but I've never actually heard it stated before."Wayne shrugs. "With the Nephilim untouchable, they conquered at home, then allowed just enough development to conquer new lands. I understand your history has 'Crusades'? That describes much of our history."
Doctor Morello: "Sounds like a pleasant time all around…."
Wayne: "We had ideas of how to live a better life, and some have tried to shake the warriors' rule, but it was not until we contacted humans that we found a fully realized vision of how things could be."Abraham manages to keep a straight face when Wayne says that.Doctor Morello does not.
[OOC] Abraham: That's because you need more resolve.
Wayne: "What?"
Doctor Morello: "Well, we humans aren't as 'fully realized' as we might appear."
Abraham: "That is true. Remember that I am effectively 'a warrior' and I have a lot of political sway in this sector."
Abraham: "I wouldn't say that it's under my rule, but I certainly have a lot of influence."Michael Pearson coughs
Ingenue: "Capacity to mete out violence is an indicator of social status in every life form this unit has studied."
Abraham: "This one as well."
Michael Pearson: "You may be a warrior, sir, but technically, so am I - and neither of us defines ourself as a warrior."
Ingenue: "Kill one person and you're bad. Kill a dozen and you're a monster. Kill hundreds of thousands and you're a hero. It is very confusing."
Abraham: "That's not as true as it once was, Metis, but yes it is very confusing."
Doctor Morello: "Well, they say that history is the tale of the victory…"Abraham shrugs. "But I /do/ define myself as a warrior much of the time."
Wayne: "And if you make it so that killing is not required for peace?"
Doctor Morello: "Then someone else comes along who may not agree with your plan."
Abraham: "That would be ideal. There is an old Terran expression 'Talk is cheap'. It is certainly cheaper than bullets and missiles."Wayne smiles. It is a bit unsettling. He gestures to the mechs. "We do more than just talk."
Wayne: "We have an expression. It translates roughly, 'Work speaks for itself.'"
Ingenue: "Talk requires a prearranged medium for communication. How does 'talking' assist when no such medium exists?"
Wayne: "That is part of it."
Wayne: "Rest assured, we are capable of dealing with anything up to and including orbital bombardment. Some of us are working on even more elaborate defenses."
Wayne: "In fact…hmm, given…you're planning to tour all the systems, right? Have you been to Mahavier yet?"
Michael Pearson: "It's on the schedule, though I'm not sure where."
Abraham: "I admit it. I make the schedule up as I go along."
Wayne: "When you go there, tell my kin that you have been inside the sky. They will know you mean here, and trust you with their research."Michael Pearson nods
Abraham: "I'll be sure to do that."
Wayne: "Well. I am tasked with showing you around. I had meant to snowball you with agriculture, but since that is not an option, I suppose I should do what my job has become. You mentioned a server you wished to see?"
Zinda Tegram: "Yes."
Abraham: "But please understand, that doesn't mean we don't also want to see the agriculture."
Wayne: "What you've seen of the agriculture is what it is. Highly automated, fed from energy collected from the rest of the planet."
[OOC] Abraham: We want seeds for the seed bank to rub in Monsant… I mean Crest's faces.
Wayne: "The factory meat is not just about the instincts. We…have an aversion to certain trappings of the warrior caste. I could go on about the special relationship butchers have with them, but even humans can imagine that, right?"
Abraham: "It's not a huge stretch of the imagination, no."
[OOC] Abraham: BRB to perform a grand experiment to see if caffeine will improve my spelling.
Wayne: "Although, given the energy efficiency, I was surprised to learn it is rarely done on terran worlds." He looks at Abraham. "Is there a similar cultural reason?"
[OOC] WC GM: Timing. Anyone else care to field it?
Doctor Morello: "Well, much like your species, humans evolved with a heavy emphasis on meat as a part of the diet."Wayne nods. "And?"
Doctor Morello: "And I suppose we just never got over the 'strangeness' of growing meat in a petri dish instead of in a field."
Doctor Morello: "There were some developments headed that way in the early 21st century, using the Terran Calendar, but there was a lot of push back against it."
Wayne: "Ah, the repression of cultural norms. Much the same as we suffered."
Doctor Morello: "Humans seem to have a strange phobia of artificiality."
Wayne: "'And yet you travel the stars in highly crafted ships'."
Ingenue: "Then why would humans wrap themselves in steel skin millimeters thick attached to nuclear reactors situated on-top of enough explosive to atomize a planet and place the unit in an atmosphereless vacuum? It does not seem consistent."
Doctor Morello: "Yes, but the ships don't try to be 'real'. They are clearly artificial."
Doctor Morello: "It's a phenomenon known as 'the uncanny valley."
Ingenue: "….so something that is artificial but seems real is… negative?"
Wayne: "This is why Kilrathi fighters are designed to look like weapons, and so often named for natural ones."
Abraham: "I think it's religious. In most religions, a perfect God made the universe and humans are imperfect things. If an imperfect being makes something that replaces a natural creation of the perfect god, that's a blasphemy."
Abraham: "And if the creation of the imperfect being is objectively 'better' in some way than the natural thing, that's even worse."
Doctor Morello: "You seem to have spanned the valley, Metis."
Michael Pearson: "Not in my experience. It's more a matter of defying expectations - or thwarting them."
Zinda Tegram: "In Oldziey, we just didn't have the infrastructure to do it."
Michael Pearson: "Our brains are wired through millions of years of evolution to recognize certain things as certain things. When something looks like something that it's not…"Michael Pearson frowns
Doctor Morello: "I think that it's the effect of being so close to what we expect, and yet not quite meeting the patterns our brains expect."
[OOC] Michael Pearson: Heh. Jinx.
Michael Pearson: "Where did you get your food in Oldziey, then? I thought you didn't have the space to use the ol' tried-and-true."
[OOC] Doctor Morello: I am not shipping you a coke all the way to Japan
[OOC] Michael Pearson: What? It'd only be 3000% shipping costs!
Wayne: "…hmm. Would you say Oldziey would be open to hosting this? If the issue of control can be worked out."
[OOC] Abraham: What? You're not going to hire a ninja to give him a coke?
[OOC] Ingenue: I'd say amazon.jp, but just looking at the conversion, 1.5L coke is… over $13.
[OOC] WC GM: A ninja charges more than 3000% shipping costs.
[OOC] Doctor Morello: Wait… you can buy Coke on Amazon?
[OOC] Ingenue: You're welcome.
[OOC] Michael Pearson: You can buy anything on Amazon, sander.
[OOC] Doctor Morello: Why would you EVER want to do that??
Zinda Tegram: "Hydroponics, mostly."
[OOC] Ingenue: Generally not fresh meat. Almost anything else.
Zinda Tegram: "We didn't have the industrial base to make vat grown meat hygienic."
[OOC] WC GM: There are other places you can buy fresh meat.
Wayne: "Oh! The solution is to keep the vats hygienic."
Wayne: "No manual access. Super-cleanroom grade."
[OOC] Zuki: And everything you can't get on amazon, you can get on ebay, or Craig's List.
[OOC] Ingenue: Oh wait, I misread, that's for /8/ 1.5L bottles of coke. So really, its only $1.73 or so each, and that's not bad.
[OOC] WC GM: And everything you can't get there, Tor, but it helps to have a bitcoin account.
[OOC] Doctor Morello: Ah, bitcoins…. Boom and bust.
Michael Pearson: "I grew up on meat-flavored vegetable proteins. All real meat was imported from Armstrong, which really drove the cost up."
[OOC] WC GM: Bitcoin tulips, was it? :P
[OOC] Zuki: Tulips, credit card gift cards, drugs, pornography….Abraham winces when Michael mentions the fake meat. He grew up on an agriculture planet, where folks know what a steak should taste like.
Wayne: "…hmm. I doubt much exports could be approved from here, but if Oldziey might be willing to host it…"Michael Pearson catches Abraham's wince and tilts his head over towards Heggy.
Michael Pearson: "They can digest meat, but they never really looked for it, so there aren't many ranch-sats orbiting Mu Cephei."
Abraham: "Ah."
Wayne: "Ranch satellites?" He's got that look in his eye.
[OOC] Abraham: He's going to try to grow satellites in the soil now, isn't he?
Michael Pearson: "Hmm? Well, the only thing they export from Lago Prime is refugees, so anything we eat out in the halo has to be grown out in the halo. There's a whole bunch of farm satellites, and a lot of the area of all the larger stations is dedicated to growing vegetables, too."
Michael Pearson: "It's a two-fer, there - food as well as oxygen conversion."
Wayne: "What do they use for soil nutrients?"
Wayne: "The soil itself - ah, crushed silica from asteroids, right?"
Michael Pearson: "On some, but I think most use hydroponics."
Wayne: "Yes, but even that requires nutrients. Hmm…"Wayne looks at Zinda. "So, what is the current industrial situation in Oldziey? And political, for that matter?"Michael Pearson snickers.Abraham does not say "All situations on Oldziey are… dynamic."
Zinda Tegram: "It's…not good."
Zinda Tegram: "Are you really unaware?"
Wayne: "As you can probably guess, we have limited contact with the outside world. VERY limited."
Wayne: "I was selected as your guide as one of the few who still looks to the stars, but I prefer to verify what information I have."
Michael Pearson: "I see."
Zinda Tegram: "Oldziey's industrial capacity is…well, what little we have is dedicated to manufacturing fighter craft."
Wayne: "…"
Wayne: "I…see. The warrior caste rules there as well?"
Michael Pearson: "That would be my understanding, yes."
Zinda Tegram: "It would be more accurate to say there's no one there but warriors."
Zinda Tegram: "It's a matter of survival."
Wayne: "No engineers? No builders? Who repairs and heals them? Who sets up their means of war?"
Zinda Tegram: "The distinction really isn't held there."
Zinda Tegram: "There are those who predominantly do one or the other, but…if the station is attacked, you're expected to fight."
Wayne: "…oh! So it's much like here."
Wayne: "Except they DO fight more often."
Zinda Tegram: "I suppose? I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a warrior ethos to the whole thing, but…"
Zinda Tegram: "Well, if you'd like an honest picture, imagine a group of very hungry people fighting desperately for scraps of…whatever."
Wayne: "…what happens if we bring in enough food for everyone?"
Wayne: "What's the population of Oldziey, roughly?"
Zinda Tegram: "Maybe…two million?"
Zinda Tegram: "That's a guess. There's not really a census."
Doctor Morello: "We've seen stuff like that in the history of Terra. Such a short term solution rarely works out."
Wayne: "Ah, I misspoke. Enough food production for everyone."
Ingenue: "In what manner is 'enough' defined?"
Zinda Tegram: "It would take them time to adapt, I'd imagine."
Doctor Morello: "And when resources are injected into a situation such as Oldziey, it tends to become concentrated into the hands of those with power."
Wayne: "Enough meat for ten million. Including feedstocks."
Ingenue: "For what quantity of time?"
Wayne: "Indefinite."Michael Pearson frowns at Ingenue
Wayne: "Mobilizing the feedstocks would be the challenge, but that's one of the things the team at Mahavier was working on."
Michael Pearson: "For until the population outstrips production, I'd assume."
Doctor Morello: "Which tends to happen."
Michael Pearson: "That said, Commander Morello is right. Those in charge in Oldziey tend to be monopolists - they'd seize and maintain control of the food supplies rather than allow it to be freely distributed."
Wayne: "Grow production in advance of population."
Michael Pearson: "Then they'd maintain control to ensure they maintained control."
Doctor Morello: "Throughout our history we've seen it happen. It's human nature."
Wayne: "I see." He sighs. "Then they were right - aggressive distribution solutions are required."
Doctor Morello: "They?"
Ingenue: "Aggressive?"
Wayne: "Even I thought rail banana cannons were a bit much."
Zinda Tegram: "There's another issue."
Zinda Tegram: "Oldziey is hostile to those they perceive as invaders."
Michael Pearson: "*cough anyone cough*"
Zinda Tegram: "Though the kingdoms compete fiercely among each-other, they dislike the thought of new competition more. Even less for them, they reason."
Zinda Tegram: "In general, craft that aren't confirmed friendlies are shoot-on-sight in Oldziey."
Wayne: "What about missiles with no IFF, hopping the jump point?"
Doctor Morello: "Are you suggesting firing food missiles at Oldziey?"
Zinda Tegram: "You'd mostly just spook the place."
Michael Pearson: "Also trigger antimissile systems."Wayne nods. "'Food missiles' is a good way to describe it."
Doctor Morello: "….Why?"
Zinda Tegram: "They'd become a source of conflict, probably."
Ingenue: "Curious. Information stored for further analysis."
Doctor Morello: "How familiar are you with Terran history, Wayne?"
Abraham: "That said, if the missiles manage to hit the atmosphere before being destroyed by the anti-missile systems, and the missile was loaded with durable seeds, then the seeds will disperse and cover *continents*. That might be feasible, if a bit alarming."
Zinda Tegram: "What continents?"
Zinda Tegram: "On Asago?"
Wayne: "Not very familiar. And…I doubt they will start with seeds, but they may try that if they wish to expand production capability."
Zinda Tegram: "That's just one kingdom."
Zinda Tegram: "The issue is, uh, there's nowhere to grow most of them."
[OOC] Ingenue: I think he's saying 'airburst of seeds will drift like radioactive fallout and will therefore cover enormous swaths of land, whether its there or not'
[OOC] Abraham: Yes.
Doctor Morello: "Throughout the 20th century, various nations in Africa, one of the continents that had been colonized and wasn't particularly stable, suffered from draughts and famines. Other, more developed nations attempted to assist with food aid, but that simply made the problem worse."
Doctor Morello: "War lords hoarded most the aid, and distributed it only to their supporters."
Wayne: "Hmm. That is a problem."
Wayne: "…would Armstrong be a more suitable recipient of aid?"
Zinda Tegram: "Uh, what's needed is a new governing body that's more resistant to corruption."Zinda Tegram looks at Abraham.Doctor Morello nods at Zinda.
Ingenue: "What is corruption?"
Doctor Morello: "Unpleasantness."
Abraham: "People doing things they know are wrong because it will give them short-term profit."
Ingenue: "Under what terms would 'success' be defined?"
[OOC] Abraham: I looked at the backscroll and I'm not seeing success mentioned. Where is ingenue referring to?
Ingenue: "[Gravitational anomaly: Duration ~4 seconds; Location: ~10km north-north-east.]"
[OOC] Doctor Morello: I'm assuming with helping the Oldziey
[OOC] Ingenue: What is needed is: "a new governing body that's more resistant to corruption". What would be the 'success' condition on that? How would you know if you have it?
[OOC] Michael Pearson: Science to determine what could have caused the anomaly?))
[OOC] WC GM: Sure.Michael Pearson rolled up 4dF: - 0 0 0 (Base: 3 Total: 2) (Science!)Abraham rolled up 4dF: - 0 + 0 (Base: 5 Total: 5) (Science!)
[OOC] Michael Pearson: Also, how close is that location to where the server is?Spyboy has seen jump points before. One might say he is exceedingly familiar with them. …but not in a planet's gravity well.
Michael Pearson: "….that was odd."
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Zinda's not thought that far ahead.
[OOC] WC GM: Abraham doesn't have anything to analyze yet.
[OOC] Abraham: Turns out some Kilrathi kid is playing Q*bert on the Qbits.
[OOC] WC GM: It's a bit far. The server's still a few thousand km away.
[OOC] Abraham: Ah, then I know how to spell 'gravitational'.
Michael Pearson: "Uh….Admiral, could you take a look at this? I'm showing jump point signatures barely a 10 kilometers away."Michael Pearson hands Abraham his computer.
[OOC] WC GM: …and now using Abraham's rollThat is most definitely a jump point. Within a planet's gravity well. On a planet's surface, even. WTH?Abraham takes the computer and makes sense of it.
Abraham: "Well, this is new. I'm trying really hard not to be excited about this."Wayne looks at the computer. "What?"
[OOC] Abraham: In other news, no caffeine does *not* help my spelling.
Michael Pearson: "So, your Excellency, I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that your people are working on jump point experiments."
Wayne: "Jump poi-oh, right, that."
Wayne: "Do you wish to see?"
Michael Pearson: "….Sure."
Wayne: "This way." He leads the way to a subway station.
Abraham: "Please. This is going to be fun!"
Doctor Morello: "Hm?"
Ingenue: "Yes! [Yesyesyesyesyes!]"Michael and Heggy are familiar with mass transit. Even made for kilrathi bodies, physics dictates the most efficient methods, and the realities of large urban concentrations dictate the experience. At least the group gets its own small car, and the trip takes but a few minutes. Still: station with many tracks, people (kilrathi) gathered around, board when your car arrives, get off at a similar-looking station at the far end.Ingenue pauses, looking at the station they entered that seems identical to the station they left… "[Correlating positioning…]" Why would people do that?Michael Pearson sorts through Ingenue's datastream - is she misreading the station, or…?And then the group is overlooking a large crater lined with sensors and emitters, dominated by sixteen protrusions, reminiscent of claws at their points, that curve together to focus energies in the crater's center. Scattered onlookers ring the crater, some talking very excitedly, others taking notes and muttering quietly.There are signs noting which station it is, and maps of the subway routes, but the station aesthetics are similar.
[OOC] Ingenue: No, just thrown by entering a place, moving a distance, and emerging at a visually similar place; positional readings do indicate that people moved, but why make everything look the same as everything else?
[OOC] WC GM: Efficiency.
[OOC] WC GM: In theory.
[OOC] Abraham: Real reason, no imagination.
[OOC] WC GM: Ingenue does not have extensive personal experience with planet-spanning civil services.
[OOC] Ingenue: I get that. Explain it to teeny-bop-bot.
[OOC] Doctor Morello: I've always liked the DC Metro
Michael Pearson: "[Probably built by robots, Ingenue. The facility looks the same because they had to work fast to accommodate the stream of refugees.]"
Michael Pearson: "[It will change over time, but it hasn't had that much yet.]"
Michael Pearson: "My…."
Doctor Morello: "What… is THAT?"
Ingenue: "Source of gravitational anomaly located. [Initiating scans…]"
Wayne: "One node of the jump point experiment," he answers as if explaining that a big blue wet surface is the local ocean.
Michael Pearson: "Please tell me you know where the other end is."
Doctor Morello: "…and the other node is…?"Ingenue quickly notices a lot of other scanners, many active. The jump point emitters seem to be inactive right now, powering down from recent use.
Zinda Tegram: "God dammit…"
Zinda Tegram: "Well, now we know why it came from here."
Wayne: "I do not know. Shall I ask?"
Doctor Morello: "Yeah…."Michael Pearson nods at Zinda.Wayne wanders off to a nearby group of kilrathi.
Doctor Morello: "So… what exactly are we looking at?"
Zinda Tegram: "You remember that weird entry at the film festival?"
Doctor Morello: "Right, the signal came through here, but I've never seen anything like this."
Zinda Tegram: "We think it was nephilim. Anonymous submitter, and the signal it was submitted from came from here."
Michael Pearson: "This…would be an artificial jump point. A wormhole, as they're sometimes called. I imagine they've built it as a bolt-hole in case the warriors come back, but if they don't know where the other end is…"
Zinda Tegram: "Well, they have a who-knows-where-it-goes wormhole, Nephilim use wormholes to travel…connect the dots."
Doctor Morello: "Sounds like a great plan."Wayne wanders back. "You're in luck! One of the other ends is near that server you wanted to see. This is a multiple jump point system; there are five locations across the planet. They're experimenting to see if they can create jump points and reposition them."
Wayne: "An adaptation of Nephilim wormhole technology."
Zinda Tegram: "We think some Nephilim came through your portal."Michael Pearson shakes his head
Wayne: "This one? It only links between points on this planet."
Ingenue: "[! Scanscanscanscan….]"
Zinda Tegram: "How are nodes added to the network?"Ingenue's scans show that Wayne may be telling the truth.
Wayne: "By constructing another facility such as this. There is no 'network', really, just many places jump points can be constructed between."
Zinda Tegram: "So, if they know where one of the nodes is, they can come through?"
Zinda Tegram: "Irrespective of where they are?"
Doctor Morello: "So, there's not 'authentication' or any sort of restriction? A new node could just connect?"
Wayne: "Both ends need to be pointed at each other."
Wayne: "You can't - at least I don't think you can - create one without the active assistance of both sides."
[OOC] Ingenue: That 'I don't think you can' sounds like a 'maybe', and maybe means 'yes'.
[OOC] Doctor Morello: That's a sound analysis, I think.
[OOC] Abraham: Quite
Zinda Tegram: "…Do you keep records of portal activations?"
Zinda Tegram: "We have good reason to think Nephilim are using these to enter the system."
Wayne: "Anyway. When I mentioned the server, I was asked to ask you if you wanted to walk through to the server's node. If so, they'll set it up for us."
Wayne: "Of course there's a record of activations. All data is logged for analysis."
Abraham: "I would like that. Yes, please."
Wayne: "That data is also on those servers."
Zinda Tegram: "We'd also like to interview anyone who has write access to that data."
Wayne: "…that's a lot of scientists. You'd take weeks just to meet them all."
Ingenue: "Accessing their data records would greatly expedite the procedure."Wayne looks at the group he had been talking to and nods. They busy themselves with controls.Never before have you seen jump points form with your bare eyes. The view through viewscreens does not entirely do it justice. The spikes, the flares, the interplay of gravitic lensing and energy flares…Ingenue, in particular, gets an impression that comes off as visual music. And then it opens, slowly, forming something like a giant soap bubble hovering between the emitters, expanding to nearly touch them.
Zinda Tegram: "Well. Damn."Doctor Morello shields his eyes from the bright light
Ingenue: "[Oooooh.]"Abraham whispers to Ingenue "I do hope you are recording that."
Ingenue: "I record everything."
[OOC] Ingenue: "But this is going straight to youtube."Wayne walks along an emitter, looking backward. "Substantial velocity is recommended for transit. That is, jump through the jump point."
[OOC] Abraham: "Damn straight."Wayne then looks ahead, runs, and leaps, doing just as he said.
Doctor Morello: "Um, what happens if you don't-"
Ingenue: (pause) "Permission to accelerate to full speed is granted?"
Doctor Morello: "Never mind…"Abraham is about to say "Yes." but doesn't want to step on Metis' mother's toes.Heggy grabs Michael's arm, towing him at maximum velocity.The party sees him land on an emitter on the far side, not slowing until he reaches the far crater's edge.
Michael Pearson: "Wai-" *snip*Doctor Morello gestures to the portal.
Doctor Morello: "After you, Admiral."The emitters seem to be made of durasteel, as if heavy impacts had been anticipated.Abraham jumps through. "One giant leap for me."
[OOC] Abraham: I'm not that fat.Doctor Morello follows behind the Admiral.
[OOC] WC GM: Not you.
[OOC] Michael Pearson: Heavy impacts like large ships missing?
[OOC] Doctor Morello: OR small robotic children, perhaps
Zinda Tegram: "Go ahead."The portal…one moment, here, the next, there. Moving through, the party barely feels a thing. The second crater is nearly a color-swap of the former: duller, perhaps a bit more green, suggesting more use.
[OOC] Ingenue: quarter of a ton mass + surface area of foot (~8 inches x two-three inches) + stamina 5 = …
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: Fun.
[OOC] WC GM: So, Ingenue is crossing?
[OOC] Ingenue: There wasn't a response to the 'safety protocols disabled' quest… oh, wait, there is.Ingenue shifts its footing just slightly, enough to elicit a groan from the durasteel flooring, then accelerates to full speed, rushing through the portal to land in… only a very small dent (after tracking that no one else was at the impact site).
[OOC] Zinda Tegram: I said "go ahead" : PAbraham suddenly realizes that he is /ahead/ of the little girl robot who is jumping through at 'substantial velocity' and quickly takes five steps to the right.From the small dents Ingenue leaves, one gets the impression that if the robot were accelerating to punch a fighter at the jump point, that would almost certainly be an armor-piercing punch.Once Ingenue is clear, the scientists gesture for Zinda to travel through.Zinda Tegram jogs through the portal, uneventfully.The jump point closes once Zinda is through.
[OOC] Ingenue: And in other news… Yay, Hrrin!
[OOC] Abraham: ^
Wayne: "In the interests of science, did you feel anything unusual passing through?"
[OOC] Ingenue: Did we?
Wayne: "We haven't actually tested it with living people much."
[OOC] WC GM: Nope.
Ingenue: "All parameters were within acceptable bounds."Doctor Morello wiggles his mechanical fingers
Doctor Morello: "Everything seems to be… intact."
Abraham: "All my bits seem to be where they belong."
Wayne: "In fact, we only put the first kilrathi through yesterday."
Wayne: "The last offworlder to get here, in fact."
Zinda Tegram: "Just…argh."
Doctor Morello: "Remind me to perform some scans when we get back to the ship…."
[OOC] Ingenue: So, we were guinea pigs? Doesn't that violate some ethics somewhere?
Wayne: "Is there a problem?"
Doctor Morello: "Yes…."
[OOC] WC GM: Somewhere, perhaps. Here? They had reason to believe there would be no problem, and someone's got to be first.
[OOC] WC GM: Put another way: they had no reason to suspect there would be a problem.
Hrrin: "It was the least I could do, Wayne," chips in a smooth and accented voice, "To make up for taking so long to accept Salaam's invitation to come here."Hrrin *A familiar yellow-furred, grease-stained figure steps out and grins at the party.Wayne nods. "Hrrin, you have experience with humans. Could you help me with them?"Hrrin laughs. "This motley lot? Certainly."